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LIMS : Logistics Inventory Management System
Introduction - Structure - System benefits - Principal features - Technical implementation
Today's market increasingly demands the development and production of products with high quality, short delivery times and costs which mirror real market conditions. Moreover, shorter life cycles and the increasing complexity of products require an appropriate degree of planning and control. The very large economical penalties of downtime and off-spec production requires that all necessary resources be available at the right time in the quantities demanded (Just In Time). Production also requires availability of stocked spare parts to maintain production equipment. To this end the optimum management of stocked resources availability is necessary.
Stores replenishment parameters and reorder strategies control the availability of stocked resources by just in time triggering of re-ordering the optimum economical quantities.
The Logistics Inventory Management System LIMS allows for the optimisation of stores logistics by calculating accurate replenishment parameters for each item (safety stocks, re-order point, economic order quantity), based on; target service levels, statistical distribution functions and constraints reflecting real life conditions.
An optimal forecast method for each item is automatically selected by a multi-method forecasting optimal solution selection procedure. Historical data and foreseen capital projects can be combined to increase the reliability of the forecasts.
LIMS provides a powerful statistical information analysis tool by means of a multitude of screens and reports displaying item demand histories, trends, seasonal patterns, demand quantity distributions as well as the different costs for cost benefit analysis.
Non-recurrent exceptionally large quantities may disturb statistics and lead to incorrect replenishment parameters. LIMS provides a means to detect such exceptional quantities and exclude them from replenishment parameter calculations. In addition LIMS contains an intelligent base of rules and procedures to handle situations without which this handling will cause problems.
In order to give a reliable estimate of the effectiveness of the calculated parameters, and/or to compare different reorder strategies, the system also includes a simulation tool. This simulation tool can accept historical data files and can be easily adapted to different stores handling policies. The simulation performs cycles of servicing of demands from stock and re-ordering replenishment for a specified environment and time scale. A full toolkit is available to analyse the results of each simulation, performance indicators can be defined and stored in order to compare the results of different parameter sets for different strategies and desired service levels. Old simulations can by kept in a library for comparison.
LIMS has shown to be particular strong in enhancement of the service level while realising a significant cost reduction through effective inventory management.
LIMS Modules:
STATISTICS, FORECASTING, SIMULATION
FORMULAS and STRATEGIES
CUSTOMER SERVICE ANALYSIS
SUPPLIER PERFORMANCE and LEAD-TIMES
PARAMETER CALCULATION and OPEN INTERFACE
* Provides reliable service for customers and users of stock.
* Reduces inventory levels lead to lowered investments in stock and to improved profitability.
* Supports business decisions by testing the impact in advance for different scenarios and policies and methods by detailed simulation.
* Lowers overall costs by optimal parameters, strategies and cost benefit analysis.
* Specified individuall service levels for items, permitting targeting of stock investment in the most critical or rewarding business sectors.
* Each stock item is treated as a separate management task.
* Item groups can be defined and results evaluated by group.
* Provides a powerful simulation tool which allows simulation, to be run over real data and fully analyse the results, a/o by exception analysis high lighting the trouble-spots and subsequent elimination.
* Simulation allows the evaluation of results of strategies and re-order rules.
* The simulation tool can evaluate replenishment parameters ROP and EOQ calculated by other sources for comparison.
* Optimal reorder point (ROP) and economic order quantity (EOQ) calculation by use of optimal forecast method, advanced statistical methods linking the desired service level to the optimal safety stock (SS) within the financial constraints.
* Forecast procedures are automatically selected to suit each item's demand characteristics.
* Cost benefit analysis.
* Exceptional quantity threshold analysis.
* ABC analysis on demanded quantities, values or any other desired aspect.
* Accurate material demand year forecasts for better purchase contract conditions.
* Supplier performance/reliability analysis
* Lead-time calculation with dynamically determined smoothing factor.
* Multiple reorder point for material can be reordered from several suppliers, dynamic selection of lowest cost solution.
* Accurate exceptional threshold quantity calculation, leading to optimal handling of exceptional quantities and correct statistics.
* Statistical information analysis tool by means of a multitude of screens and reports.
* Graphical representation of item demand histories, seasonal pattern, demanded quantity distributions are available.
* Fixed order cycle (FOC) strategy and scheduling procedures.
* Reorder point replenishment (ROP) strategy.
* A library of standard reports is provided. In addition, new reports can be easily customised or new ones defined.
* Measure business performance by key-indicators.
* Exception signalling by user defined messages and triggering values.
LIMS has been designed to meet present and future needs. The base system can be configured to meet individual customer requirements, whilst still remaining flexible and easy to use. The basic system is a complete stand-alone 100% ORACLE solution (no user-exits, C-programming, etc..) which can run on ANY platform (e.g. UNIX, VMS, DOS, OS/2, etc.) supported by ORACLE and is easy to integrate with any other ORACLE based system.
